Tamati has a problem with the alcohol industry

There seems to be no problem with multi-national corporations promoting sugary drinks that cause tooth decay, obesity and poor health, nor with global brands promoting pre-mixed alcohol to our youth binge drinking culture. Neither does international brands pricing these beverages cheaper than water or milk cause a stir.

These latest comments were in Tamati Coffey’s weekly opinion piece in the Rotorua Daily Post. Somehow it was in the midst of an opinion piece on the Wicked Campers.

It’s now Wicked Campers vs four National Party Ministers plus MP Shane Reti who are “deeply” involved with this issue and its possible harm to the wider New Zealand public. That’s five MPs on this single issue. That’s near a million dollars in public salaries focusing on this issue. If the government want to get involved in marketing standards, at least tackle advertising that directly damages our country.

Does anyone check these? How much taxpayer money was spent on Sue Moroney entering a twitter war with beach house owners?

We should all be aware that this campaign was started by Family First, who are a conservative lobby group. All of this leads to censorship legislation if the government gets involved, because that’s all politicians can do. Imagine if the Beatles were censored, or Michaelangelo’s David or speaking in Maori was banned in schools – because at one point in our history calls have been made to ban these because a conservative element in our society disagreed with them.

I wonder what he’d think of a left-wing element in our society trying to ban sugar and everything he disagrees with. Hmmmmm.

– Rotorua Daily Post, Facebook

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. And when he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet, and as a result he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist that takes no prisoners.